A lighting device of the above-mentioned kind is a kind of luminaire generally referred to as a large area lighting device, since the light output of the several light sources is distributed across a common output area of the lighting device. In various perception tests it has been shown that users would like to have a control over the light intensity distribution in large area lighting devices. For example, one can use point light sources and by varying the density/distribution of the point sources together with their individual intensity maintain the total intensity coming from the light source constant while changing the appearance of the light source. However, these solutions are relatively complex, and/or rigid.